On a crowded elevator the other day, I overheard a woman say, “He told me about this weird dream he had – guess he never heard that there’s nothing more boring than listening to someone’s dreams!”

I had to laugh because in my work, there’s really nothing better. Dreams, like fantasies, are a window into the unconscious.

Early Greek texts on the subject of dream interpretation, which they called, “oneiromancy” dealt extensively with what was held to be the predictive quality of dreams. The popularity of ascribing dreams with foretelling future events became popular—and remains so even now in many cultures (including our own).

Today, neuroscience has discovered much about dreams, but the purpose of dreaming remains unknown. Current research points to a “clean-up” function of the memory storage areas of the brain. We are presented with so much information in a day that the capacity to remember everything – the shape and color of a spill on the countertop, for example – becomes too much, and some memories are discarded; while others are stored.

When psychologists ask their patients about dreams, they are interested in how one reconfigures information and bits of experience into sequences. Dreams are often bits of stories, sometimes a bizarre or fanciful snippet of scenes with characters from our lives, with ourselves as observer or playing a significant role.

Just as daydreams and fantasies reflect unconscious processes, the way the mind creates sleeping “stories” from real events and experiences varies depending on one’s psychological state.

When patients emerge from depression, their “stories” typically end with a positive resolution. A dream of driving down a winding road ends in a soft, cushioned stop, just before coming upon a churning river. This dream reflects the unconscious’ new belief that life will proceed well and safely.

Patients suffering from anxiety have dreams with distinctly different outcomes – rivers may churn far up onto the road to threaten, revealing fears of unknown dangers.

We pay close attention to the emotional reactions the “stories” evoke: fear, rapturous joy, or sadness that even causes one to awake with tears. People have awakened to feeling angry at a spouse or friend, as the emotional residue of a dream carried forward into the waking day.

Freud famously said, “Be responsible to your dreams.” Regardless of our opinion of Dr. F., it’s good advice: know what your dreams reveal about your unconscious – you’ll be less likely to say, “Hmm, I have no idea why I just did/said/thought that!”

– Ruth Wimsatt is a licensed psychologist in Newport Beach and can be reached at 949-222-3285 or ruwimsatt@gmail.com.